


The Longest Distance

by Tabithian



Category: Batman (Comics), DCU, DCU (Comics)
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, Gen, Temporary Character Death, Time Loop
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-07-08
Updated: 2015-07-08
Packaged: 2018-04-08 07:10:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,266
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4295394
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tabithian/pseuds/Tabithian
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The third time Jason wakes up to Rebecca Black he realizes he has a problem.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Longest Distance

**Author's Note:**

> This started out as a prompt from supercomicgirl on Tumblr forever ago (you can totally tell when I started this by dated pop culture references /o\\) and went super dark on me because reasons. *hands*
> 
>  
> 
> Major character death warning because time loops.

The third time Jason wakes up to Rebecca Black he realizes he has a problem.

Not the one where Dick somehow keeps managing to get his sticky mitts on Jason's phone to reprogram the alarm. Or no, that _is_ a problem, it's just a minor one compared to the whole _Groundhog's Day_ situation he's experiencing.

The second time through he manages to avoid the bullet to the face, but falling from one of Gotham's rooftops to the pavement below without a grapple hadn't been much better.

As far as Jason can tell, he's the only one who seems to realize there's been an _incident_ , some seriously fucked up shit going on in Gotham. 

He wakes up to Rebecca Black's voice, adrenaline pumping and a scream caught in his throat. 

For the bullet or the fall, he's not sure. (For the reason behind them, _maybe_.)

Jason fumbles on the bedside nightstand for his phone, manages to hit the snooze button. He lays there for a long moment, staring up at the water-stained ceiling and tries to get his breathing under control.

“Dammit,” Jason says, as the snooze kicks in and Rebecca Black comes back on. 

********

_It's a mistake on Jason's part. Letting Replacement, _Tim_ , get so far under his skin like this. Letting the little shit burrow in deep, like a fucking parasite._

********

Fifth time over, and Jason's officially tired of this shit. 

“Oh come on,” he says, flicking blood off the end of the crowbar. “Same tired old joke? Really?” 

At Jason's feet Joker wheezes, blood on his teeth. (His teeth, his face, all over the fucking place.)

Jason very carefully doesn't look towards the center of the warehouse, single spotlight on an unmoving figure strapped to a chair.

No.

There's not enough time to get out of the blast radius, and even if there were Jason knows there's no point.

_Five._

Joker's laughing, a bubbling, broken thing.

_Four._

Jason smiles. Dark, feral, as he stands over Joker.

_Three._

Joker turns his head to the side, good eye focusing on Jason.

_Two._

Jason raises the crowbar. It's new, barely a scratch on it. (He wonders if Joker kept the old one.)

_One._

“Want to hear a joke?” 

_Zero._

Jason brings the crowbar down.

********

_Jason gets careless, doesn't expect there to be a sniper._

_“You're welcome,” Tim says, hint of a smirk in his voice even though his expression is carefully neutral._

_“Fuck off,” Jason says. And because it's been getting annoying, prickle between his shoulder blades,“_ Stop following me _.”_

_“Okay,” Tim says, lying through his fucking teeth._

********

When Jason wakes up to Rebecca Black the next time, he has to rush to the bathroom before he throws up.

“ _Goddammit_.”

No matter what he does, it ends the same way. 

Blood and pain and death coming at him before Rebecca Black pulls him back. 

Part of him wonders if this is a twisted kind of hell, living the same day over and over again with Rebecca Black the only real constant.

Last time, though. 

Last time had been different, because fucking _Joker_.

Joker and Tim and Jason needs to fix this right the hell now. 

*********

_Tim comes to him one night, hand clamped to his side to stem the bleeding._

_“New suit design,” he says, like Jason cares. “I'm testing out a lighter Kevlar weave.”_

_Jason crosses his arms. “Yeah? How's that working out for you?”_

********

He goes to Bruce because he's lost track of how many times he's seen Tim die and woken up to Rebecca Black. Of how many times he's tried to get back to that damn lab and gotten sidetracked by something else. (Fucking _Joker_.)

Jason _convinces_ the new Batgirl and Black Bat that it would be a good idea to roust Tim for a night of keeping Gotham safe. (Scares up a little weapons deal to keep them busy while he takes care of more important matters.)

Catches Dick mid-swing between buildings. They land hard on a lower building's roof, rolling and tumbling to break their momentum.

Jason comes up with his gun pointed at Dick's face, and Dick has his goddamn stick and Jason wants to laugh because they've been here before.

“Don't,” Jason says at the faint noise behind him. “I just want to talk.”

And because they've been here before - 

“Well I know that whenever I want to talk to someone I hold them at gunpoint too,” Dick says, sarcastic in all the right places. “It's only polite.”

“Nightwing.”

Dick sighs, drops the fight stance and looks over Jason's shoulder to where Bruce and the little demon brat must be.

“Really, though,” Dick says, waves a hand at Jason and his gun. “This is not how normal people talk.”

Like any of them were ever normal.

“Project Jigowatt,” Jason says, and shows he can play nice when he lowers his gun. Turns to look at Bruce. “Lab 121, really, Bruce?” 

Bruce stares at him, very clearly not saying a damn thing.

Dick, though. 

Dick and all those movie nights, _before_ and after, when Tim had dragged him back to the manor, and why is Jason even surprised something like this would happen. (It's fucking Gotham, of course something like this would happen.)

“Jigowatt. Lab 121? Wait, like - “

Jason ignores Dick, ignores the demon brat.

“What the hell were you thinking, letting them do that?”

Nothing good ever comes from fucking with time. 

********

_Tim won't fucking listen, and Jason._

_He's_ tired _._

_Of Bruce giving him those looks, and Dick giving him that face when they see him doing his damn job and Tim._

_Tim._

_“You're an idiot, Jason.”_

_Jason scowls, lets Tim pluck shrapnel out of his back._

_“Fuck off, it worked, didn't it?”_

_Tim's pointed silence is answer enough._

********

“Wait, wait, so are you - “

“Shut up, Dick,” Jason says.

Bruce grunts, always so eloquent.

“No, but really. _Groundhog's Day_?”

Dick and his fucking movies.

Jason turns to face him, thinks about telling him just how many times Tim's died now. Imagines the look on Dick's face, _Bruce's_ after he goes into excruciating detail about the _how_ because Jason's sure as hell not going to forget. Jason always getting to him just that tiny bit too late. 

“You say that like stranger things haven't happened.” 

Bruce is watching him, eyes narrowed. “You're leaving something out.”

Jason looks away, gaze landing on that fucking _case_. 

“You really don't want to know,” he says.

********

_“I need your help,” Tim says, spreads out file after file and a sleek little tablet on Jason's kitchen counter. “There's something weird going on in one of Wayne Enterprise's labs.”_

********

“Why didn't you go to Tim?”

Jason slowly turns his head to look at Dick.

The night's half over and there's a timer ticking down in the back of Jason's head.

“I mean,” Dick goes on, “the two of you have been working together lately, right?”

And this.

“Who says he didn't come to me about this?” Jason says. 

At the Batcomputer Bruce goes still. Demon brat looks up, shadow of his usual sneer on his face at Tim's name, Jason's presence.

“Jason.”

Try as he might, Jason still can't see why anyone would think time travel is such a great idea. Especially when the people involved are working with flawed theories and sub-par equipment and a _why the hell not_ kind of attitude.

“We shut the project down when I found out about it,” Bruce says, eyes on Jason. “It was unsanctioned.”

Tim had said that, among other things, yes.

“What aren't you telling us?” 

And there's Bruce and Dick and even fucking demon brat _looking_ at him.

********

_Technically, the lab is part of one of Wayne Enterprise's subsidiaries._

_“What kind of 'weird' are we talking about here?” Jason asks, poking through the files._

_Pauses over one with a psychological evaluation attached and the notes at the end._

_“Yeah,” Tim says. “Not good.”_

_“Again,” Jason says, and wonders what kind of screening is in place for this kind of shit to happen. “What kind of 'weird' are we talking about here?”_

_“Well,” Tim says, dry. “There's a time machine involved, and even though the project's been shut down, power usage reports say otherwise.”_

_Power usage reports and security footage and really, someone's dropped the ball to let thing get as far as they have._

********

“Don't hit the machine,” Jason warns, past experience talking.

Bruce glances at him.

“Oh, don't even, Bruce,” Jason snaps.

Dick snorts, amusement clear in spite of the situation.

There are a few dead scientists (one,two, three, four, where there should be five, Jason remembers) and a fair amount of thugs in black suits and face masks trying to hustle lab equipment out of the building and into unmarked vans.

The machine is lit up and making that high whistling sound that grates on Jason's nerves.

Dick and demon brat are corralling the thugs outside with the vans, Jason and Bruce get the dubious honor of dealing with the ones inside.

“Fuck you too, Dick.”

********

_“Fuck.”_

_Flashing lights and sparks and a deeply unsettling hum that rattles his bones._

_The thugs aren't going to be a problem for a while and Jason's left staring at the machine while Tim fucks around with computers a level down._

_“That didn't work.”_

_It usually does. See a weird device the bad guy are trying to use, blow it up or shoot the hell of it to make it stop and ruin their day. Piece of cake._

_“I told you not to hit the machine,” Tim says, exasperated._

_Jason backs up as the machine starts to smoke, its humming dropping low into an angry sounding growl. He can hear Tim muttering to himself, clatter of him typing furiously, but whatever he's doing isn't going to help in time._

********

“What happened to Tim?”

Dick.

“What do you think?” Jason asks, so goddamned tired.

Bruce took demon brat to cart that fucking machine and the rest of the mess somewhere to be dealt with, and Jason's left with Dick _looking_ at him because.

Because there's a mad scientist with a broken face and missing teeth and blood all over Jason's clothes and.

Jason.

He'd tried. Fucked up every damn time but this one, but he'd fucking tried.

Thought maybe if he did things a little different, it wouldn't turn out like _that_.

********

_“Hey,” Jason says, tired, resigned because this is looking a little damn familiar. (At least he has Tim bitching in his ear to keep him company this time.)_

_“Dammit, Jason, just hold on!” Tim yells, voice strained. “I almost have - “_

_Jason jerks at the sound of a gunshot. Runs to the lab door but it's sealed, Jason locked in and fucking helpless to do anything._

_Over the comm he can hear Tim fighting, muffled sound of a body hitting the floor._

_“The hell happened?”_

_“...Found the missing scientist,” Tim says, voice all wrong. Low hiss and choking cough. “Find some cover, power's spiking.”_

_Jason knows, can feel a thrumming through the floor, smoke getting thicker and no way out._

_“This was a terrible idea,” Jason says, lets himself slide down the lab door, listening to Tim die on the other end._

_“Just a little,” Tim says, fucking_ laughs _, wet and ragged._

_Jason opens his mouth, tries to say something but he_ can't _. Never any good at this kind of thing._

_“Oh, fuck off,” he manages, and the fucking machine_ pulses.

********

Jason wakes up to Rebecca Black.

“ _Fuck_.”

He'd thought they fixed it, stopped that goddamned time loop for good. 

Wonders what would happen if he just lays there and refuses to play. If maybe that's been the right answer this whole goddamn time - 

“Dick had an interesting story to tell me,” Tim says, sitting on the bed next to Jason, and Jason.

Stops breathing for a moment.

“Something about that lab I was investigating.”

Jason doesn't.

Tim keeps talking, about the lab, about that fucking machine and the crackpots who thought they could fuck with time without any consequences. About wanting to go to Bruce with it, but deciding better because he had his hands full with Damian and other "more important" cases than this one, and he's such a fucking idiot. (They both are.)

“Why me?” Jason asks, when Tim finally winds down. “Fucking seriously, why me?”

He got Tim killed, over and over again. 

“Why wouldn't I?” 

And now Jason opens his eyes, finds himself looking at Tim's back. 

“I got you killed,” Jason says, because Tim needs to know. 

“Ditto,” Tim says.

And Jason.

He never said - 

“It's not that hard to figure out,” Tim says, twisting around to look at him, eyebrow raised. 

Jason sighs, puts his arm over his eyes. “The hell are you doing here, anyway? I don't remember giving you a key to this dump.”

Tim _hmms_. 

Jason.

Jason is very much _not_ listening to the little shit breathing, taking up Jason's space like he has the right.

“Steph and Cass told me to tell you thanks for last night, but please don't make it a habit,” Tim says, dutifully, and knowing those two, there's a good reason for that. 

“I don't know what you're talking about,” Jason lies. 

“Of course not,” Tim soothes, pats Jason's shoulder. 

“Fuck off,” Jason mutters, lowering his arm to glare at him. 

Tim smiles, tilts his head like a challenge, and Jason - 

This isn't over, this fucking mess, because things like this are never simple for people like them, but.

“I'm going to kill you,” Jason growls, snags a pillow in one hand and throws himself at Tim, who won't stop fucking _laughing_.


End file.
